1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEK CULTURE. 



827 



(physicians pronounce it a refreshing and 

 healthful drink, and the people like it, and 

 hand over their nickels. But I do not think 

 this excuse helps it a particle. If people want 

 it. and it is a healthful drink, by all means let 

 them have it; but call it ivhntitts. For the 

 sake of the example before our children; for 

 humanity's sake, and for God's sake, give it 

 some name that does not brand all who have to 

 do with its sale as liars and cheats. I think it 

 quite likely that, under certain conditions of 

 the system, a little tartaric acid and sugar with 

 drinking-water may be wholesome and bene- 

 ficial to the health, just as lemonade is whole- 

 some and beneficial, or just as soda water and 

 seidlitz powders are beneficial. But lies ^are 

 never beneficial to humanity. Jesus said.o > • 



Ye are of your father tlie devil, and the lusts of 

 your father j'e will do. He was a murderer from 

 the begiiHiing-, and abode not iti the truth, liecause 

 there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, 

 he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar, and tlie 

 father of it. 



THE INTERNAL WATER - CURE; DOCTORING 

 WITHOUT MEDICINE, ETC. 



Several of the friends are Inquiring for the 

 results of my experience, and perhaps experi- 

 ments, in the above line up to the present date. 

 In regard to the water-cure, I have no reason 

 to change my opinion, with the following 

 exception: Where one gets into the habit of 

 using hot-water injections every day he will 

 soon find that he is losing the benefit of at least 

 a part of the food he eats. This is indicated by 

 exhaustion, more or less, just before meal-times. 

 The point is, that a considerable part of the 

 nutriment contained in ibe food, and very 

 likely a most essential part, is taken by the 

 proper organs while the residue is in the colon. 

 In good health it should remain in the colon 

 until every particle of nutriuient is extracted. 

 The excrement should be in hard compact 

 lumps or balls. It reminds me of getting bees- 

 wax out of old combs. Unless the residue is 

 put under heat and pressure both, a liiile wax 

 ■will remain. If the hot-water treatment be 

 used in the morning, before breakfast, very 

 likely the result is not as debilitating; but if 

 your digestion is disordered you will, perhaps, 

 sleep a good deal better at night by having the 

 contents of the colon removed. Now, where 

 there is headache, distress in the bowels, or 

 perhaps sick headache, it is better to remove 

 the cause of the mischief than to let it remain. 

 But a much better way is to get the digestive 

 apparatus to work all right itself, without 

 assistance in the way of the water remedy. 

 Perhaps this can not always be managed; but 

 I think it can a great many times by being 

 very careful not to eat more than your system 

 can properly take care of. Do not overeat, 

 zvhdtever, you do. Another thing, when your 

 food distresses you, and digestion is a long 

 while under way. try cutting otf liquids while 

 at your meals. A good many times 1 think one 

 receives lienefit liy omitting even milk; or per- 

 haps you can use only a little milk while eating. 

 An hour or more after a meal, if you still feel 

 thirsty, take some water, or milk if you choose, 

 or a little fruit, that you have found by experi- 

 ence agreas with you. I think a good many 

 people sutt'er from indigesiion because they 

 keep diluting the gastric juice by too much 

 liquid while eating. I would still also recom- 

 mend having your supper quite early, or, if 

 you can manage it, skip supper entirely; or 

 have for supper new milk right from the cow — 

 nothing else. If you find some graliara gems 

 wvith the new milk do not distress you, take 



them also. Now a word more about the water- 

 cure. 



Where your digestion has got into a .sort of 

 chronic fashion of looseness, so that the hard 

 balls that I have mentioned are not formed in 

 the colon at all, the hot water is one of the best 

 remedies to get nature into the right channel I 

 know of. The simple operation of thoroughly 

 washing and rinsing the colon seems to assist 

 nature greatly in getting things in line* and I 

 think this method of doctoring without medi- 

 cine is ever so much better than the use of any 

 sort of drugs or even medicine of any kind. 

 But after these things begin to go in the nat- 

 ural way, I would drop the water-cure. It has 

 been suggested that, after depending on arti- 

 ficial means so long, nature will get so she will 

 not work without it. I do not think this is 

 true. I used the hot water every night for sev- 

 eral months at a time: and then on going away 

 from home I dropped it suddenly. Nature 

 managed all right, but 1 did not sleep so well 

 nights for a wliile. After a very few days, 

 however, every thing seemed to go just about 

 as well as when the hot water was used; and I 

 am of the opinion that the colon should retain 

 its contents until morning. In fact, I am quite 

 sure one has more strength and endurance 

 when he does so. There seems to be a final 

 working over, and squeezing the contents of 

 the colon, that is important — at least, you will 

 find you have more endurance when the colon 

 is given plenty of time to get through with the 

 work; and I believe I feel the best when I am 

 admonished, some time during the forenoon, 

 that every last bit of nutriment has been ex- 

 tracted, and that nature has no further use for 

 the accumulation. 



The facts given above are not from my own 

 experience alone, but I have talked with others 

 in regard to the matter, and I feel pretty sure I 

 am right. The proper use of the internal water- 

 cure is a wonderful invention for humanity; 

 but be sure you do not abuse it. When I find I 

 have eaten something that does not agree with 

 me, and that old peculiar headache begins to 

 set in, I start at once for the hot-water treat- 

 meut, no matter whether it be morning, noon, 

 or night. Jietter get rid of the cause of the 

 mischief, and commence over again, than to 

 suffer headache and distress in the digestive 

 organs. 



One thing more: If you have reason to think 

 that nature has not of herself, or will not of 

 herself, empty the colon as thorowjhln as it 

 ought to be emptied, try the water after iiature. 

 Let nature do the work if she will, and give her 

 full sway; but when she will not, and when 

 you can, by so simple a means as the use of 

 pure water, fit yourself for your duties in life, 

 use the water; and. above all, when you feel 

 your ignorance in regard to the workings of 

 this complicated piece of mechanism God has 

 given you — the human body — do not be back- 

 ward in going to him and asking bin) to give 

 you wisdom and undeistanding in that very 

 line. Shall not he who fashioned these curious 

 and intricate abiding-places for the bunuui soul 

 give us wisdom and guidance in regard to them 

 when we come to him ? 



* You know doctors have been teiling us of the ter- 

 rible diseases that result from letting the e.vcrenient 

 of a sick person, in consequence of proxinUty oi 

 privies to wells or cisterns, g'et into the drinking- 

 water. It is a terrible poison. Well, I have thought 

 that, when one's liealth is out of oidiT, the poison- 

 ous matter remaining in the colon may act like 

 yeast tu renew the disease day by day; but the 

 thorougli rinsuig, with sulHcient water, cleanses 

 tlie colon, and permits the fresh good matter in it 

 to perform its pi'oper office. 



